Latest Update in the China Pig Iron Market

As of May 14, iron ore inventories across 35 ports tracked by SMM totaled 119.32 million mt, a decrease of 3.22 million mt from the previous week, but up 18.87 million mt year-on-year. Daily average deliveries from the 35 ports increased 60,000 mt on a weekly basis to 2.74 million mt this week.

The following table shows the ferrous and nonferrous metals movement on the SHFE and DCE on May 14, 2021

Operating rates of blast furnaces at steel mills rose 0.2 percentage point from a week ago and increased 2.3 percentage points from a month ago to 86.8% as of May 14, SMM survey showed.

China HRC stocks across social warehouses and steel makers declined 77,400 mt or 2.18% from the previous week to 3.48 million mt in the week ended May 13. This was 27.05% lower compared with the same period last year.

Inventories of rebar across Chinese steelmakers and social warehouses stood at 11.1 million mt as of May 13, down 6.6% from a week ago. Stocks are down 6.7% from a year earlier.

DCE iron ore futures market plummeted sharply and the main contract I2109 dropped by 7.49% over yesterday. PBF was closed around 1600yuan/mt, with price drop of 60yuan/mt.

The following table shows the ferrous and nonferrous metals movement on the SHFE and DCE on May 13, 2021

Planned output of construction steel rebar across China's major blast furnace steelmakers is estimated to rise 3.02% from the achieved production in April to 8.68 million mt in May, showed an SMM survey.